Seaplane from Miami to Farmer's Cay

About an hour and a half in the air. Little Farmer's Cay lies roughly 273 statute miles from downtown Miami, just over 237 nautical, almost all of it open water.

The exact block time depends on the aircraft, the departure point and the clearance stop on the way in and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book. What sets the length of the day is not the flight. It is the two border filings and how long the aircraft waits for you.

Yes. Farmer's Cay is in the Bahamas, so this is an international flight and every passenger needs a valid passport, children and infants included. Full names and passport numbers go in when you book rather than at the dock, because both border filings are made in advance from our side. There is no check-in desk on this route and nothing to hand over at the slip.

Yes. The settlement everyone means is Little Farmer's Cay, an island under two miles long on the bank side of the Exuma chain and in daily use it is simply Farmer's Cay. Big Farmer's Cay is the uninhabited island directly across the cut, five minutes away by boat, so the two are usually spoken of as one place. When you send a date, either name reaches the same water.

On the water on the bank side of the cay, in the sheltered ground off the settlement rather than out on Exuma Sound. The harbour, the government dock and the yacht club pier are all within a short walk of each other there, so a tender or a golf cart covers the last few metres.

The island does have a short airstrip on its north west end, used by light aircraft out of Nassau and a seaplane has no need of it.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Farmer's Cay is a settlement rather than a border post. So the aircraft clears at a port on the routing, Bimini, Nassau and Exuma International at George Town among them and flies the last leg afterwards.

Which one your day uses depends on the aircraft, the route and the date and it comes back with the quote. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance.

Yes, though it is a full day rather than a half one. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting at the cay rather than turning around, so the hours ashore are yours.

The clearance stop on the way in costs time and it is planned into the itinerary rather than discovered on the day. Parties who want longer stay over: the settlement has rooms and apartments to rent.

A seaplane needs daylight on the water. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so the day has a hard end rather than an open one. On this route the clearance stop keeps office hours of its own, which usually closes the day earlier than the sun does.

Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.

The aircraft is chartered whole rather than sold by the seat, so your party travels together on one booking and comes home on the same aircraft.

How many seats that is depends on which aircraft flies your date and on the payload once baggage is aboard, so it is confirmed with the quote rather than promised in advance. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.

Rods, dive gear and hard cases all travel regularly, within the payload for the aircraft on the day. The limit is a weight rather than a bag count, which is why bulky equipment is declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock: it comes out of the same payload the passengers do. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.

Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility, so a departure can move on a day that looks clear from the beach. The bank side of the chain is the sheltered side, which helps and summer afternoons still move return legs more often than mornings.

The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest and you are told before you book how a moved departure is handled. Because the aircraft carries only your party, a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.

It is the cay's own regatta and homecoming, known locally as the 5Fs after its own name, the First Friday in February Farmer's Cay Festival. Traditional Bahamian wooden sloops race for several days, families come back from Nassau and abroad and the anchorage fills with visiting boats.

Yes, you can fly in for it and it is the one weekend of the year to ask early: rooms on an island of sixty people are counted in single figures.

A charter is priced as a whole aircraft, not per seat, so the number moves with three things: which aircraft flies your date, how many of you there are once bags are aboard and how long the aircraft waits at the cay.

Tell us those and you get one all-in number, with the departure point, the boarding time and the hours ashore it is based on, before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.

Yes. The cay sits in the middle of the chain rather than at the end of it and the same aircraft carries on to Black Point, Staniel Cay, Big Major Cay, Compass Cay, Great Exuma and George Town.

Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing and the clearance is planned around the port of entry rather than the stop you want. For a yacht or a private cay we pass the coordinates, the pilots decide whether they can put down there and a tender has to be in the water to collect you.

Yes, pets travel in the cabin with you. The one thing we ask is that you tell us at the enquiry, with the type of animal and its weight, so the seating and the load plan are right from the start.